The Past and The Present

It only had been a year ever since the last skirmishes with Menkaid ended, but it still left humanity in fear even after their landslide victory. Almost everyone was conscripted at one point in their life to fulfill the quota of the Earth Defense Force. The orphans from the first Menkaid invasion stayed in government-provided orphanages. Most of them were enrolled in the military-ish academy and would be enrolled into the military school already partially trained.

Dean Barnett was one of those orphans living in the orphanage. He used to be a happy kid until Menkaid massacred his whole family when he was five during the first Menkaid invasion. He belonged to a family consisting of doctors stretching from even his great grandfather.

When the first invasion happened, Dean was having a new year party in a region thought to be safe from the Menkaid, but the government was dead wrong on that one. On one desperate last attack near the end of the war, the Menkaid did a massive bombing run on his town, almost killing him and killing his big family.

They managed to escape, but a strike team from Menkaid killed them all, leaving Dean as the only one behind. As he grew from a seven-year-old boy to a teenager, he learned more and more about the ordeal of the war, either through education or anti-Menkaid propaganda.

As a boy, Dean held a very deep grudge against the Menkaid race. During his early teenage age, he always thought of many different ways of killing Menkaid from tearing their ears or sucking out their brains. He didn't mind stabbing any Menkaid in the middle of the road.

For the most part, Dean was only capable of using a healing spell for one reason. He was really adept at it, mainly because it was the main memento that his mother and father gave him. He remembered learning a basic healing spell when he was five from his mother and perfecting it with his father.

With the lack of any offensive spell, people saw him as weak and a weak link in any chain of command. Even if one of his friends could use an offensive spell, Dean only could use a healing spell and only a healing spell.

What was the reason? The memento from his parents. During holidays, he always seek a permit to go to the destroyed area where he used to be living and salvaged anything that could be a memento of his parents. One of them was a framed picture with writing behind it.

"Operation Restoring Hope. 2nd February 2128"

The picture was special. It was the picture of his father and mother with one of the Menkaids with the Menkaid smiling at his father with his mother in the background. It seemed to be in the middle of an EDF medical tent. At first, he felt betrayed while looking at that picture. Why would his parents treat people from the other side? Or more like, why would the EDF treat their enemy instead of killing them, even after what the genocide that they had done?

He wanted to burn that picture, but he couldn't. It was the only picture with both his mother and father at the same place. After a bad day, he could throw that picture towards the ground and stepped on it using his boots until the glasses shattered and he realized what he had done. He bought a new frame and put the picture. He wouldn't bring the picture to the military academy, though.

The last thing he needed was an item that would prove that he was a sympathizer for the Menkaid. There was no privacy in the military school, and no way they would let him bring a picture into the military school.

"Alright, that should be all," Dean looked at the baggage that he packed neatly in his bag.

His bag was the military rucksack kind. There was also a rifle on the side of the rucksack, albeit without the magazine attached to the magazine weld. The rifle was a standard-issue M4-EC from the 21st century, ol' reliable was the name of the rifle. It was picked up from his father's belonging.

Although a massive amount of modernization had been done to Earth's weaponry, some of its forces were still using early 21st-century technology that had been modernized to 22nd-century standard. For example, the M4 that he used was modified to accept the usage of a better propellant and modern internals propelling the bullets to be faster and more accurate. Basically, only M4 carbine by name.

Sure, other weapons such as the M12-AR from the North American Federation or the AV-35 rifle from the North Eurasian Federation did exist, but modernization attempts on old rifles worked pretty much the same and still did the same job as the newer rifle, albeit at the cost of ergonomics for the most part.

Dean headed for sleep, preparing for the next day. There should be a soldier coming to pick him up and helped him with moving out of the orphanage. From his hunch, the one who would come would probably be his upperclassmen, the Private First Classes.

===================

Someone knocked on the door of the room where Dean was staying. Dean had been dressed in the military uniform given to him, just a regular service shirt patterned in woodland alongside its pants.

Dean opened the door. A military person was standing in front of the door.

"Good morning. I'm Private First Class Adams, I'm from the EDF. I'm here to pick you up," he smiled as he offered his hand to carry the baggage, but Dean refused. He could carry the baggage all by himself.

The private was wearing the insignia of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, marked by its 24/2 patch on its left shoulder. The military school was part of the 24th Infantry Division, as far as Dean could recall. His school was 24th Infantry Division, 2nd Infantry Brigade, 120th Training Battalion located in Almara Island, North Atlantic.

"Morning, nice to meet you," Dean shook his hand.

"The way you dress is quite, well, sharp," Adams complimented.

For what it was, the way Dean dressed was quite sharp. His ironed woodland shirt issued by the EDF was looking very neat alongside the newly smeared black combat boots, also issued by the EDF.

For one thing, this was what made orphan stood out from regular students. Wearing military uniform wasn't a regulation for the first day, at least. On the second day though, it became a regulation for physical education and combat education. The rest? You wore a regular private school uniform. And the rifle, it was something that was always issued to an orphan. They had been taught trigger safety ever since they were 10, and operated rifle accordingly once they hit 13.

"You looked quite well too, Private Adams."

Adams was probably only a year older than Dean. Private First Class, the first commanding rank of the military school. At least, in the first year, any student that showed any leadership skill would be put as a candidate to be a Private First Class earlier than the others. Still, it only happened in the 2nd semester.

"Thanks. Here's the letter of your admission, Dean, right?" Adams gave a piece of paper to Del.

It was a formal letter signed by Lieutenant Colonel Rigaes. It was probably a copy-pasted signature of him and sent to all other kids in the whole region. It was a draftee notice, and the said child should be sent to the military school. There was also a military ID card on that letter.

"Everyone has this ID card?" Dean asked Adams.

"Only those who used to be a student in a military-ish school. Those who didn't only gets it later."

"I see."

[Name: Dean Barnett]

[Rank: -]

[Combat Power: -]

[Unit: 24th Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade, 120th Training Battalion]

[Room: #231 | Abardeeen Street 25]

"No rank yet, Private Adams?" Dean asked him.

Dean's reaction was justified. Anyone that attended military-ish school before the military academy would have their academic year counted towards their service year. For example, since Dean had been in military high school for three years, he would be counted as a person that had served the military for three years.

"Yeah, you'll have to take the entrance exam first. After that, you'll get a private rank, however, your combat power will decide what class you'll be in," Adams said.

"Nice, that's good to hear," Dean said.

"Let's get to the train station then. I'm afraid, catching up with that rucksack of yours will be hard, especially with the usual security checks," Adams added.

"Sure, lead the way."

Dean closed the door of his dorm, he put his lock key to the door handle, and made sure that it wouldn't be entered anytime soon. Maybe his caretaker would come and clean some stuff, but definitely not mess around with his personal belongings.

███████████████████████████

A little bit of trivia here

M12-AR = M12 Assault Rifle

An assault rifle chambered in 6.8x60mm bullet that was created in 2135 to replace the early 21st-century assault rifle that has been used at the start of the first Menkaid invasion on Earth. It is the main assault rifle used by the soldiers from North American Federation that participated in EDF.

AV-35 = Automatic Vasiliyev 35

An assault rifle chambered in the same 6.8x60mm bullet created in 2135 to compensate for the need for an AK-style assault rifle. Designed by the OKB-3, the rifle has the same performance as the M12-AR but is more optimized for the country more used to the AK platform from the early 21st century.

M4-EC = M4 Enhanced Carbine

A modernization kit for the standard AR-15 package. It changed the caliber of the rifle to 6.8x60 mm to compensate with the EDF standardization for assault rifle alongside with massive overhaul to its gas system and barrel to accept the bigger pressure from the new propellant.